It's a bit "in your face" to have a title like "anarcho-libertarian" in your main blog description, but it is hard to find good words to describe such a thing. So, for the unitiated, here's a brief description of what I mean.
The word "anarchy" is laden with many meanings, and the traditional anarchists (the kind that protest regularly at WTO meetings and the like) actually object to people such as myself who use the word anarchy and yet are sympathetic to capitalism, which they virulently oppose. To clarify, I am definitely not a part of this "traditional" anarchist view.
Essentially, I believe the state is unnecesary. For this purpose, I define the "state" as an organization which claims for itself a monopoly on the use of force in a given geographical area, and that is generally accepted as legitimate by the poeple in this area. Any uses of force in this are are all considered subject to the states rules (as in, you can defend youself if the state determines it is ok).
When I say unnecesary, I don't mean that all governments could be abolished tomorrow and we would all be better off. I mean that given time, information and an improved moral character, a society would be better off without a centralized monopoly on law enforcement. I'm not talking about utopia, as flawed Man cannot create such a thing on earth. I'm talking about the best we can hope for.
There are many arguments for it, but the most concise and still reasonable I can think of is: Monopolies tend over time to increase the price they charge and decrease the services they provide. I consider this to be true even for governments, and when I look at the last 200 years of the US, it seems self evident that we pay more for "protection" and get far less, and quite a bit of actual harm sometimes described as protection. The internal competition that the founders attempted was a good try, but insufficient in the long run. In order to remain competitive, cut costs and continually try to find better ways to server customers, I can't see any other way than the direct financial competition that government has always claimed the exclusive right to ignore.
I have no expectation of persuasion here, but just a hope that you may understand what I mean and think I am at least eccentric, not insane. :)
For the curious, here's a few links that might get you started, or maybe just more confused:
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